“Our markets opened on a positive note on the back of yesterday’s short-covering rally and sharp close. Even the slightly higher crude oil prices helped sentiments at the fag end of a fortnight-long selling period,” Anand James, co-head, technical research desk with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS.

Vaibhav Agarwal, vice president and research head at Angel Broking, cited that markets continue to trade on a weak note despite seeing some intra-day strength after European markets opened in the green.

“While valuations have turned attractive, FIIs continue to remain net sellers which would limit any gains in the market,” Agarwal noted.

“With earnings continuing to remain lacklustre, we expect markets to consolidate at lower levels before we see any uptick. We expect to see some positive bias ahead of the budget, which would be a key trigger for the markets.”

Nitasha Shankar, vice president for research with YES Securities, elaborated that broader markets are falling in line with the headline indices amidst sharp profit booking in high beta stocks.